Roger Penske receives Argetsinger Award from Watkins Glen Research Center

The International Motor Racing Research Center presents the 2016 Cameron R. Argetsinger Award for Outstanding Contributions to Motorsports to Roger Penske on June 30, 2016, at the Corning (N.Y.) Museum of Glass. From the left are Duke and J.C. Argetsinger, sons of Cameron Argetsinger, Penske and Bobby Rahal, Indianapolis 500 champion and chairman of the IMRRC Governing Council. (photo by Angelo Lisuzzo; provided by the IMRRC.)

Corning, N.Y. --

Team owner, racer, and businessman, Roger Penske, a man who has been involved with motor sports for over 50 years, received the 2016 Cameron R. Argetsinger Award from the International Motor Racing Research Center (IMRRC) at a banquet in his honor Thursday evening, June 30, 2016. The event that brought motor sport royalty from several areas of the sport to pay tribute to Penske was held at the Corning Museum of Glass (CMOG) in Corning, NY, about 20 miles south of Watkins Glen.  Previous recipients of the award have been Chip Ganassi in 2014 and Richard Petty in 2015.

Following a cocktail reception outside, the capacity audience in the museum banquet facility saw a video explaining the work and mission of the IMRRC. The research library contains over 700 collections and more than 90,000 professional photographs of motor sport, along with many other items.

Just announced that evening the IMRRC was pleased to let the audience know that it will now manage all 73 years' worth of archives for the 68,000-member strong Sports Car Club of America (SCCA). While the donated archives are an invaluable asset to motor sport history, the need for more physical space for the IMRRC to continue its mission could not be made more clear. 

While they had dinner and conversation, those in attendance also watched a rolling slide show of archival photographs of Penske and his drivers over the years.  Penske's victories to the date of the dinner included 433 major wins, 499 pole positions, 28 national championships, and 16 Indy 500 wins. 

His leadership over time has earned him the nickname "The Captain," and his successes, as one tribute noted, have made him the "winningest car owner in motor sport history."  Penske has employed over 85 racing drivers and currently leads 53,000 people in his transportation and other businesses. 

Master of ceremonies for the evening was ESPN television commentator, Dr. Jerry Punch, who used his skills to both provide continuity for what was happening throughout the evening and to provide context for the respective guests and video tributes that the audience would see and hear.

Among those in person offering tributes to Penske were: Michael Printup, president of Watkins Glen International (WGI); Scott Atherton, president and COO of IMSA; Jay Frye, president of IndyCar Competition and Operations; Lisa Noble, president of SCCA; and Walt Czarnecki, executive vice president of Penske Corp. and vice chairman of Team Penske.

Current and former Penske racers in attendance included IndyCar racers Rick Mears and Helio Castroneves. Between the two of them, the drivers represented seven Indy 500 wins.

Those providing remarks via video included NBC Sports' Formula One commentary team: David Hobbs, Leigh Diffey, and Steve Matchett and several former and current racers including:  Dan Gurney, Jim Hall, Danny Sullivan, Al Unser Jr., Parnelli Jones, George Follmer, Will Power, Simon Pagenaud, Juan Pablo Montoya, Ryan Blaney, Brad Keselowski and Joey Logano. Sam Posey narrated a video presentation of Penske's career.

Other highlights of the evening included an auction of a commissioned painting by motor sports artist, Randy Owens, that depicted Penske with several of his memorable cars over the years. The painting sold for $27,500 with the proceeds going to the IMRRC.

The actual presentation of the Argetsinger Award, a large engraved glass bowl, was made by J. C. Argetsinger and his brother Duke, both sons of Cameron R. Argetsinger, who revived road racing in the United States in Watkins Glen in 1948 as well as Indy 500 Champion and Chairman of the IMRRC Governing Council, Bobby Rahal.  Remarking on Penske's skills as a racer in the early days, J. C. Argetsinger noted that Penske had taken pole position at Watkins Glen in the 1959 Formula Libre race -- a race that was later won by Stirling Moss.

In the various discussions and interviews, Penske was asked about his relationship with fallen racer, Mark Donohue. He said that Donohue put his team on the map, that he was "underwhelming in terms of personality," but that he was high on commitment and was one  understood technology. He gave the team epic wins. 

"He was like a brother to me," Penske said. "I'll never forget him."

Asked by Punch about how the new Argetsinger Award winner's interest in motor sports all started, Penske said, "I loved cars," and that his father took him to the Indy 500 when he was 14 years old. "I always wanted to compete," he said.

He said he is "most proud of my family." What drives him every day is "to try to be better." 

His father used to tell him, "Effort equals results," and he has tried to live by that maxim. 

The evening closed, and guests were given a gift bag to take home that included J. J. O'Malley's 2009 book, Daytona 24 Hours: The Definitive History of America's Great Endurance Race, published by David Bull Publishing.

Asked to sum up his impressions of the evening, IMRRC Governing Council Member, Larry Kessler, a businessman from Rochester, N.Y. said, "The IMRRC is gratified by the support we have received from the motor racing community who came out to an oversold house to pay homage to Roger Penske and his 50 years of excellence in motor racing."

The award and event's sponsors included: NASCAR, ISC, WGI, IMSA, Sahlen's, Corning Incorporated, Bosch, Corning Auto Glass, Chip Ganassi Racing, Elmira Savings Bank, Paul Miller Auto Group, Porsche, SCCA, Sunoco, Welliver, and Glenora Wine Cellars.

The Racing Research Center is an archival library dedicated to the preservation and sharing of the history of motorsports, of all series and all venues, through its collections of books, periodicals, films, photographs, fine art and other materials. The Center is a 501 (c)(3) charitable organization.

For more information about the Racing Research Center's work and its programs, visit www.racingarchives.org or call 607-535-9044. The Center also is on Facebook and Twitter.  

Historics: Watkins Glen Racing Library talk to feature USRRC series, Nov. 8

[Photo:  Mark Donohue scrambles from his burning Lola T70 as Mak Kronn squeezes by in his McKee Mk6 during the Watkins Glen round of the United States Road Racing Championship on June 26, 1966. Donohue was not badly injured, but his Lola was a total loss. (photo by David Baker from the International Motor Racing Research Center�s Argetsinger Collection)].

The International Motor Racing Research Center in Watkins Glen, N.Y. / U.S.A. sends this press release today [provided in full below]:

"The USRRC lasted just six seasons, but its impact on racing was enormous, and now the series' history is reported in detail for the first time in USRRC: A record of the United States Road Racing Championship 1963-1968 by Mike Martin.

Martin of Seattle, Wash., will speak about the series and its crucial role in the development of professional road racing in America at the International Motor Racing Research Center in Watkins Glen on Nov. 8. The Center Conversations talk is free and open to all.

The USRRC was the Sports Car Club of America�s first series for professional race drivers.

'Without the USRRC, there could not have been a Can-Am, the better known and fully international series for the same type of car,' said award-winning motorsports author Michael Argetsinger. 'The Group 7 category, remembered today as Can-Am, pitted American engineering with the best from Europe and produced some of the most exciting race cars ever built. None of it would have evolved without the USRRC.

'The series, featuring unlimited displacement, two-seat sports cars, brought raw horsepower and speed that captured the imagination of fans, drivers and entrants alike. Scarabs, Porsche RS-61s and King Cobras dominated early years to be supplanted by iconic Chaparrals, Lola T70s and McLarens before the USRRC gave way to the Can-Am which would carry the tradition of unlimited race cars into the mid-�70s,' said Argetsinger, who is a member of the Center�s Governing Council.

John Bishop, SCCA executive director at the time, and his director of professional racing Jim Kaser were the key figures in the series� creation.

Bishop was instrumental in the founding of the Racing Research Center.

A review in Veloce Today describes Martin�s recently published undertaking as �an enthusiastic book which documents that exciting, noisy, time, in a way reflecting the social changes that were taking place in the nation, while proving that American know-how and muscle would finally prevail, at least on the race track.�

Offering a foreword by 1965 USRRC champion George Follmer, the book has more than 400 photographs, including some by Racing Research Center historian Bill Green.

Though he didn�t see a race until an event at Pacific Raceways in Kent, Wash., when he was 16, Martin was a race fan long before that. Collecting information about racing and writing about racing came naturally. Still a teenager, Martin wrote his first 'book' about racing � a 176-page history of the 1.5 liter Formula One years.

'I didn't think to try to get it published,' Martin says. 'However, years later I discovered The Formula One Record Book by the Formula One Register guys and realized there must be a market for this sort of thing. A seed was planted.'

Over the years Martin had his eye on a history of Formula Two racing, while helping other authors with their research. He switched gears in the 1990s to USRRC and dedicated 20 years to the project.

When not enjoying the world of racing or researching or writing about racing, Martin has had careers in banking, inventory control and electronics manufacturing.

Martin�s talk is part of the ongoing Center Conversations series.

The final talk of 2014 will be on Dec. 13 on the Carrera Panamericana. Tom Overbaugh and Paul Wendt will speak about the revival of the famous Mexican race that today takes both experienced racers and novices 2,000 miles across that nation in a week.

The Racing Research Center is an archival library dedicated to the preservation of the history of motorsports, of all series and all venues, through its collections of books, periodicals, films, photographs, fine art and other materials.

For more information about the Center�s work and its programs, visit www.racingarchives.org or call (607) 535-9044."

All of the Conversation series talks are free and open to the public.  They are always informative and held in a casual atmosphere with friendly people!

Another pilgrim seeks out Francois Cevert sites at Watkins Glen

 

 

 

[Book cover photo: L'Autodrome.].

I was sent this link to a blog post by Philippe Robert, who made a pilgrimage in 2014 to Watkins Glen, New York / USA in tribute to Formula 1 racer, Francois Cevert.

Glad to pass along the link that tells about Mr. Robert's journey to the Glen.  The post is, however, in French.

LINK:  http://classiccourses.hautetfort.com/archive/2014/10/05/greetings-from-watkins-glen-5462130.html

 

 

[Key photo:  L'Autodrome].

The key above was Francois's room key from the Glen Motor Inn, where many drivers stayed in the 1960s and 70s during the Formula 1 United States Grand Prix every October.  The key was found in Francois's briefcase after he died on the track at Watkins Glen on October 6, 1973.  The photo comes from the book about Cevert co-written by the driver's sister and pictured at the top of this post. 

It is haunting to see the room key for Room #7, thought to be a lucky number by some.  The Glen Motor Inn, overlooking scenic Seneca Lake, still exists and remains in operation to this day, mostly unchanged from the Grand Prix days.  As Mr. Robert writes in his blog post, he was able to stay the night in Cevert's very room. 

The Cevert book was initially printed in a limited edition in 2013 to mark the 40th year of Cevert's passing. 

There is a wish among some fans that the book be translated into English.

BOOK:  Francois Cevert:  Legendary Driver by Jacqueline Cevert-Beltoise and Johnny Rives. 

Foreword :		Sir Jackie Stewart and Jean-Claude Killy.
Publisher :		L'Autodrome

The book is available to read on the premises at the International Motor Racing Research Center in Watkins Glen.  As with all the rare books in the reference library at the IMRRC, it may not be checked out. 

Thank you, Philippe Robert, for sharing your experience with readers.

In sending me his blog link, Mr. Robert referred to reading my own blog story about Francois Cevert and Watkins Glen as one of the factors in his deciding to make the trip from France to the Glen.  You can read my Motor Sport Muse post about looking for signs of Cevert's crash at the Glen on the 40th anniversary of his passing, HERE.

RIP, Francois Cevert.

Formula 5000 cars -- Talk at IMRRC, Watkins Glen, 5.10.14

There was a talk as part of the International Motor Racing Research Center "Conversation" series on Saturday, May 10th about Formula 5000 cars.

I wrote a summary of the 3-hour program for my National Historic Motor Sports page on Examiner.com.  NBC Formula 1 commentator, Sam Posey, was the honored guest at the talk.

You can find the article here.

Formula 1's Francois Cevert - 40 Years later at Watkins Glen

 

(Photo credit:  Connie Ann Kirk)

 

(Photo credit:  Unknown)

 

 

 (Photo credit:  Unknown)

 

[Photos:  Top - Small remembrance left by 2 motor sports enthusiasts at the esses at the Watkins Glen racetrack on Oct. 6, 2013.  Middle & Bottom - French F1 racer, Francois Cevert (1944 - 1973) who died in a tragic race car crash at Watkins Glen on Oct. 6, 1973.]

As it turned out, I was at the track on the 40th anniversary anyway, but I had made a mental note of the date of Francois Cevert's death at Watkins Glen ever since I read about the accident in more detail in Sir Jackie Stewart's autobiography, Winning is Not Enough (Headline, 2010) in late 2012.  I knew I'd want to find a way to be at my "home track" on the anniversary.

No one should have to give his/her life in chasing one's passion, I thought, but it happened so much more often in motor sports in those days.  I was haunted by the idea that a sport I've been growing to enjoy watching and writing about more and more is also one for which people give their lives.  What does it mean to keep participating in an activity that seems so dangerous (to the layperson, anyway, if not to the racers), I keep asking myself.  Why not take up something that is challenging physically and mentally, that takes skill, but is not so costly both in terms of risk to life or limb or in simple, financial expense?

Well.  For a new book I'm writing, I am still chasing down answers to those and other questions with racers. 

On Sunday, though, a day that started out foggy and hazy and got unseasonably warm (into the 80s), my thoughts were about wanting to pay homage to someone I never knew but whose history had become an important part of my studies of the sport. 

Watkins Glen is a track I go to often.  The thought of someone dying there doing what I go there to watch is not a comfortable thought to have.  Many people I talk to often were at the track that day in 1973.  They talked to me about their memories.  All were clearly still moved by the thought of that day's events, even though it was 40 years ago.

Most people I talked to on Sunday remembered that the French National Anthem was played after that morning's qualifying session, soon after the accident that, I was told, happened just before noon.  That tribute was one way people around the track realized that the rumors of the severity of what may have happened at the esses were, sadly, true. 

 

 

 

 

The esses seem to remain a tricky and dangerous spot on the Watkins Glen track.  Now a host of NASCAR races (and other series) each season, the track and its esses were the site of several spins, crashes, and other incidents as recently at pro races as during the 2012 and 2013 NASCAR Sprint Cup seasons.

The drivers accelerate going up the hill at the esses after taking the 90-degree Turn 1 and right-hand sweep.  What makes the esses so dangerous?  Well, I'll have to find out more about that.

 

On Sunday, I wanted to find the closest spot possible, or the most appropriate place, to leave my little bouquet of 4 white roses and print-out photo of Mr. Cevert.  Outside the protective fencing some distance away, I searched behind the blue Armco barrier at the esses for any "sign" that might still be there.  Was there a difference in the fencing from when it had been repaired that might show from the back?  Could I tell anything from the trees back there; there had been trees in the background of the horrific archival photo of the accident.  Was it at that wooden post?  Was it at that patch of fencing where the back of the Armco goes from blue to black?

There were differences in the fencing, but the differences occurred in more than one spot, and of course I had no idea about whether they were from that particular repair in 1973, or some other time.  The trees there looked like they did in the picture from 40 years ago -- shouldn't they be bigger now, I wondered?  I walked along the track back there for some distance, lost in thought.  Should I leave my flowers outside the track, or inside?  I walked back.  I decided to leave them inside.  Cevert was involved in racing as an insider.  Even I, writing about the sport and studying it steadily for such a short time by comparison (but now even with media credentials to race events), could no longer call myself totally an outsider.

(Photo:  Small tribute at the esses.  Connie Ann Kirk.)

Later in the day, I spoke with a lifelong resident of Watkins Glen and racing enthusiast who works with the archives at the International Motor Racing Research Center in town.   Independently, he had also brought flowers in tribute.  Growing up in Watkins Glen, he and his brother had been to most if not all of the Formula 1 Grands Prix.  His older brother was even a local "gofer" for the Stewart/Cevert Tyrrell team back then.  Spare parts he had secured at the team's request were on the car, that car.  The lifelong resident was kind enough to allow me to go with him to the spot as he remembered it.  It was so long ago; he was a teenager then, but his memory seemed strong.

We scrutinized the track from the distance of the spectator area inside the circuit; we studied the Armco, the background.  He searched his memory for the landmark he had in mind that was very specific as recently as 2 years ago when he was able to go on the track itself and show the spot to someone from Europe who had come so far, also wanting to find it.  Finally, we settled on a spot at his recollection and laid them down.  We lingered there, and talked.

Memories can be etched in such a way that they are forever altered.  They may dim a bit; the details may get a little blurred around the edges, but the imprint lasts a lifetime.  Francois Cevert clearly left an imprint on this sport and in the hearts and memories of those at the Glen that day.  He meant a lot to those around the world who followed his racing career and had such high hopes for his future.

From what I have heard and read, he was loved at Watkins Glen and in so many other places, and by so many people.  Locals still remember him fondly staying at the Glen Motor Inn where so many of the Grand Prix racers stayed back then, or playing the piano and laughing at the Seneca Lodge where they went to celebrate.  I'm so sorry that this track where I now spend so much of my time was so cruel to him (even as it rewarded him for his efforts 2 years earlier with his first and last Formula 1 Grand Prix win).  It has been a place of triumph and tragedy for other racers and their families, friends, and colleagues as well.

(Team-mates Francois Cevert and Jackie Stewart in happier days.  Credit:  Unknown).

Then a strange thing happened:  There were amateur races (SCCA) taking place on Sunday.  After I laid my flowers, I went back behind the Armco outside the track to think some more and see if my new insights from the kind Watkins Glen native were any more helpful in defining the spot from that side.  While I was there, amazingly, a tire apparently broke loose from a race car and flew up high into the catch fencing way over my head, right there.  Right then.  In the esses.  (The catch fencing, by the way, was not there 40 years ago).

To have that happen at that particular moment while I was still so lost in reverie about Cevert's accident, trying to see it in my mind at that very place, was strange indeed.  It felt like an echo from the past, an acknowledgment from beyond.   At one point, I wondered if my imagination had gone into overdrive so intensely that I'd fantasized the flying tire into being.  I went back inside the track and saw a car stopped at the corner station; apparently, the driver was ok.  But the danger -- it is still out there.

In watching the video below later on, I saw what looked like a tire flying away in the photograph of Cevert's Tyrrell race car back then, too.  If that's true, perhaps this little coincidence of events was a small thank you from beyond, for going there to remember, for searching so hard to find the "exact spot."  It seemed to confirm my efforts.  Or, at least, my active writer's imagination likes to think of it that way.

In any case, continue to rest in peace, racer Francois Cevert.  The motor sports community continues to remember, and those of us somewhat newer to the sport continue to learn about you and offer you and your colleagues our respect.

[Bottom photo above:  Trees from perhaps the same cluster or "family" of trees to those shown in the top photo above, behind Cevert's accident).

 

(Above:  Believed to be about here. 

Note the Armco is now 3 layers high here instead of the 2 layers of 40 years ago)

 

 

 

(From behind the Armco -- now with catch fencing atop it).

In memorium:  Here is some video footage from that day at the Formula 1 U.S. Grand Prix, Watkins Glen, NY - October 6, 1973 (Note:  The link will take you away from this page to view the video on YouTube):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i4bO74WE5Ak

Simeone Foundation Automotive Museum: First Visit & Demonstration Day

 

 

[Photos:  Top -- Dr. Fred Simeone speaks to the audience gathered for the Demonstration Day, July 27, 2013; 2nd -- Volunteer driving Simeone's 1954 Ferrari 375MM; 3rd -- Simeone driving his 1953 Jaguar C-Type; Bottom -- the 1953 Cunningham C4R in the collection. Photo credit:  Connie Ann Kirk.].

Recently visited the Simeone Foundation Automotive Museum in Philadelphia for the first time.  I rode on a bus trip sponsored by the International Motor Racing Research Center in Watkins Glen and wrote about the trip for my Rochester Motorsports page on Examiner.com.

I had never visited a car museum before.  Dr. Simeone maintains that cars (certain "historically significant" automobiles, at least) should be regarded -- and treated, apparently -- as works of art.  His museum contains 65 automobiles that he has collected over several decades.

I am more of a racer fan than a car fan, I have to admit.  I like certain cars better than others (tend to favor open-wheel race cars over closed-wheel, e.g.), but it's racers who really intrigue me about motorsports the most.  Still, the day was educational, to be sure, and Dr. Simeone was a good host to the Watkins Glen bus group that day, who had traveled so far to see his collection and the demonstration of 4 of the cars.

Read the article about the day HERE.

In the sense of a marriage between design and function, etc. I can see the automobile having artistic qualities, certainly.  But a full-fledged work of art?  I'm not closed-minded against the idea, but I'm not sure I buy the concept, quite yet, either.  Does an object made for a specific, useful function -- and not art for art's sake, as it were -- deserve the same sort of consideration as fine art -- a painting or sculpture, e.g.?  Hmm.  Still thinking about that.

Certain automobiles are a thing of beauty, to be sure.  And these can be defined in the eyes of the beholder.  The curves, color, gleam, shine, length, height, shape, etc. can be aesthetically pleasing.  Some cars can make your pulse jump (if you're at all a fan, I suppose!).  Do they make you *think* like a painting or a sculpture does, though?  Do they invite you in to dream and put yourself in the picture (car?), relate what you see to your own experience of the world, etc.  They can certainly expand your world view, I believe, enhance your knowledge and understanding.  And what about the car's history -- competing in or winning key races around the world?  What effect does that have on the "art" of that particular car, if any?  Hmm....must think more on all of this!  Ha.

While I was there, I purchased the book, The Stewardship of Historically Important Automobiles, produced by the museum.  Information about the book says it argues a preference for preservation over restoration in automobiles.  Perhaps some of the essays included there will offer more food for thought on the above questions as well.

[Muse:  What do you think, dear reader?  Should automobiles be regarded as works of art, like paintings and sculpture?  Why or why not?  If you think so, should they be preserved and kept on exhibit in public museums and not driven; exhibited but driven occasionally for demonstration purposes; or kept on the road or at tracks, driving to their limits in their "normal" lives as a car until they face a "natural" death?  What do you think?].

Watkins Glen authors launch new history book about NASCAR, F1 at WGI

(Photo:  New book about the history of Watkins Glen International by Michael Argetsinger and Bill Green.  Credit:  Arcadia Publishing).

As part of their ongoing "Conversation" series, on Saturday the International Motor Racing Research Center in Watkins Glen hosted a talk by authors of a new book on the history of Watkins Glen International racetrack. Authors Michael Argetsinger and Bill Green of Arcadia Publishing's "Watkins Glen International" showed a slideshow from the pictorial history book and offered detailed and personal comments on each.

READ MORE HERE.........

'Watkins Glen International' by Michael Argetsinger and Bill Green

This 127-page book contains hundreds of historic photographs of the Watkins Glen racetrack over its evolution from a road course through the village in 1948 to the 2012 NASCAR Sprint Cup and Nationwide series season.

The book was released in early May, 2013 and will have its official launch at the International Motor Racing Research Center at 610 South Decatur Street in Watkins Glen on Saturday, May 18.  The launch will feature a talk by the authors that includes a slideshow of photos they used in the book, many of which come from their own private collections. 

Mr. Argetsinger and Mr. Green are uniquely qualified to write the history of the track.  Argetsinger's father, Cameron, is credited with initiating the 1948 road race, and Green attended that race as a boy and has since served as race historian, now working at the International Motor Racing Research Center.

For more information about the event on May 18, click HERE......  and also HERE!